This first post meant to be both Drill and Pablo Honey, but I've misplaced my Pablo Honey notes for the moment so I'll just start with Drill EP, Pablo on Saturday and do it like that. Let's begin, shall we?
The story with Radiohead begins like most rock stories in the UK. At a school. This one begins at the Abingdon School in the mid 80s. Thom Yorke and Colin Greenwood were in the same year, Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway a year above them and Jonny Greenwood two years below his brother. The first incarnation of the band to be called Radiohead rehearsed on a friday weekly. What did they call themselves? 'On A Friday.' Jonny Greenwood started out as a Harmonica Player, then Keyboards befor graduating onto lead guitar.
Everyone but Jonny off to University, to finish by 1991 and recorded their first set of demos (that I am not sure is listenable to) entitled
Manic Hedgehog and they entered the Oxford music scene, doing some shows in the local pubs and taverns that caught the eye of Chris Hufford, co-owner of Oxford's Courtyard Studios, who with his partner, Bryce Edge, became their managers and have been till the end of this day.
A Chance meeting at the music shop Colin Greenwood worked lead to the band signing a six album deal with EMI, who requested that they take a name change, which the band agreed to. That's how, after taking the name from a Talking Heads song, the band known as 'On A Friday' became Radiohead, and that's how their first EP was released..
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Drill EP (1992) Recorded in February, 1992, released 5th May 1992
Track Listing
1."Prove Yourself" (demo) - 2:32
2. "Stupid Car" (demo) - 2:25
3. "You" (demo) - 3:22
4. "Thinking About You" (demo) - 2:17
Recorded in Courtyard Studio in Oxon, it was done very quickly. In fact, when the demos were recorded, the band was still known as 'On A Friday' and wouldn't change their name till the next month. Despite only a run of 3,000 CDs when this EP was first released, it hit debuted on the UK charts at number 101, with some assistance from BBC Radio 1 host Gary Davis, who gave the band their first national radio exposure when he played
Prove Yourself on the Radio.
These are 4 rough songs, 3 of which would make it to Pablo Honey with recorded , but the best of the bunch I think is Prove Yourself, with the most polish to it. Notable I guess, is the one song that wouldn't make it to Pablo Honey,
Stupid Car. The first of a few songs about Thom Yorke's distrust of cars after being involved in a crash with his girlfriend, it's the worst of the songs on this demo EP, but it's written by such a young band at this point, it's excusable.
Thinking About You made it from "Manic Hedgehog" to this EP to Pablo Honey, making it one of the oldest songs in Radiohead's discography.
You is alright in demo form, but I'm a bigger fan of the version will see on Pablo Honey (come Saturday!) which I do apologise for not including on this first post. I'm hunting up and down for those notes, but I did promise Radiohead on Wednesday, and so, here's the first EP.